Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Even before the PAP solved the problems caused by the large influx of the last 15 years, it tells us that it wants to continue the large influx until 2030 to reach a population of 6.5-6.9M people. This proposal has shocked both netizens and citizens alike because the past decade of high foreign influx has led to numerous problems and a decline in the quality of life Singaporeans. Singapore now has the highest population density in the world and the PAP govt wants to increase this further by another 30%. The high foreign influx and especially cheap 3rd world labour has caused the income gap to widen, wages to be stagnant among lower income groups, cost of living to shoot up and transport/medical infrastructure to be strained.

Here is the white paper [Link]. You should read the white paper in full to understand the arguments but if you don't have time, as usual, I will summarize the main points

The first section of the paper discusses the challenging demographics we face - that of an ageing workforce. If the current birth rate does not improve we will have an ageing population unless we allow for immigration. Most govts be it Russia, France, Sweden, Finland and S.Korea when confronted with the same problem of low fertility tackles it head on by removing the root causes of low fertility but the PAP proposes a solution that assumes that it will fail to get the fertility rate backup.

However, the evidence produced here is not correct. While it is true that the Singaporean workforce is ageing, Singapore workforce today consists of both foreigners (40%) and Singaporeans(60%). These foreigners on work permits and employment passes are "refreshed" every few years provide a segment of the workforce is "forever young". So the combined profile of our entire workforce is not going to age substantially over time. Today we have the reverse of an ageing workforce problem that will get worse if the PAP embarks on this irresponsible measure of importing more foreign labor over time - the problem faced by Singaporeans is that of structural unemployment. There is underemployment or unemployment of our older workers (45 and above) because the PAP open the floodgates to supply the labor market with younger foreign workers many of our older workers have been retrenched and find it hard to get new jobs. They usually end up underemployed in positions that do not fully utilize their skills and experience.

The white paper also talks about the low fertility rate among Singaporeans. This I've explained in previous postings [Link]is fixed by importing babies today or adults into our workforce 20 years from now. You cannot import adults to make up for the shortfall in babies today. Even then in terms of numbers we are talking about a shortfall of 10-20 thousand babies a year but the white paper talks about expanding the population by about 100 thousand a year - 5 times the baby short fall from replacement level. What is the extra 80,000 people for? Other than force feeding the economy with people to keep it growing, it really does not make sense.

The last part of the white paper discusses the final numbers we will be looking at in 2030, a population consisting of 55% Singaporeans (this number includes the newly minted citizens during the 17 year period) and calls this a "strong core" of Singaporeans. It also discusses the benefits if the PAP govt goes along the proposed plan - increase job opportunities, good quality of life, and the chance to live in a vibrant economy. To tell this to Singaporeans who are already filled with anger and frustration resulting from the high foreign influx of the last decade that maintaining a high influx is good for them is an insult - we already know the consequences and outcomes of such a policy, throughout the last decade, the PAP has reiterated that a high foreign influx is here to create a better life for Singapore, but that is not what happened. To try to fool us again shows the disingenuity of our leaders - not only have they failed to deliver, they are now proposing to go along a trajectory we know will not deliver a good quality of life for our people.

This White Paper is the same as the Ministerial Salary Review and NatCON - it's all about having what the PAP wants, regardless of the wants of the people. It's about having the PAP convince everyone else about what THEY want - as always.

If I am newly wed, I would think twice abt having children cause it is going to be even more stressful in 17 yrs time. If fact, I would think very hard about emigrating and not returning. Does the MIWs value my feedback or it is just hogwash to them? With present overcrowding and a severe lack of 20/20 vision on the part of the leadership, do you as a stakeholder in this country, wish it may likely be surrendered volunterily? I rest my case abt the present government.

PAP govt is importing FAR MORE foreigners than if our population had naturally replaced itself through a 2.1 TFR. Clearly their priority is still GDP growth at all cost that benefit a selective segment of the country (multi property owners, developers, most GLCs etc) and not whether Singapore is liveable with that kind of population density.

The title of the White Toilet Paper is ironic. "A Sustainable Population"? without addressing the root cause of why the population isn't even replacing itself NATURALLY?

Lucky, u r much better than them. This bunch of assholes are completely useless. They just don't know what they are talking about. They are simply regurgitating what Lee Kuan Yew has drummed into their brains. Lee Kuan Yew is more interested in protecting his legacy than the welfare and interest of Singaporeans. Singaporeans may lead shitty lives but so long as Singapore remains a leading city of the world, that is fine for him. Lives for the majority of Singaporeans have been and will continue to be tough if they have to compete with the best in the world. That is why Australians are very sensitive to allowing foreigners into their country. It will definitely dilute their quality of lives. Any Australian politicians not sensitive to this issue run the risk of being kick out. Singaporeans in their self interests should do the same.

Mr Lucky, good points and indeed well argued, then, what is PAP REAL AGENDAs besides getting new 'citizens' to continue the chain of votes for them in the future adding some already 40%of true local citizens! it is alarming rate of increased population to say the least, u are already the MOST CROWDED CITY based on land size..so, what can YOU AND WE Singaporeans do about it?! do the others 40% maybe lesser now wake up the reality of this happening or do we have to continue to swallow this insult till the day perhaps there still maybe some 'coffins' left of the dying of Singaporeans? continue to blog,write and enhance this awareness to our country men and yes, I salute your thought of write in this matter...

If Singapore's solution is to ever increasing population, then we should not end at 7 million, it should go on. However this is not practical with insurmontable constraints. Unlike Japan, we may be able to look at other options as is necessary of a global city.

If I were in the opposition, I would come up with a strong rebuttal to this white paper, point by point. After that, I will come up with my own white paper on the solutions to address our current challenges.

I will keep on refining my alternatives (through getting feedback and adjusting it according to the realities from time to time) until the next GE in 2016, when I will throw a challenge to the government with a team of able men and women who will see the plan through. The PAP needs to be challenged all the way!

Too many flawed assumptions in this white paper. This is the perfect example of kicking the can down the road and let somebody else solve the problem created by the MIW.

PM explanation is like since interest rates are low, let's borrow as much money as we can and when interest rate rises, since, we are unable to service the debt, borrow more to pay back the original loan. We are just digging a deeper and deeper hole if you follow the logic presented in the white paper. It explains nothing about solving the population problem.

In the past, the people would give them the benefit of the doubt but not today.

I don't think PAP ministers care about the common people on the street. With their fat cat pay packages, they can afford huge homes and big cars, not having to jostle with the common people on public transport or puny HDB flats. Even if the population grows to 10 million, they have nothing to lose, but have everything to gain financially, and they can then justify a bigger pay cos the GDP then might even be half a trillion dollars

This nation, yes, the original Singaporeans, not the new and half new Singaporeans or “residents”, will be a small minority. Our nation will be gone. If this white paper is followed blindly.

Even Lee Kuan Yew, in one of his moments of clarity about our Singapore nation, says this:“If we go on like that, this place will fold up, because there’ll be no original citizens left to form the majority, and we cannot have new citizens, new PRs to settle our social ethos, our social spirit, our social norms.”

See that? Even Lee Kuan Yew does not accept new citizens, new PR to continue our original Singaporean nation.

This super white paper calls a core of Singaporeans, but that core has very few original Singaporeans.

I don’t think Lee Kuan Yew will be happy to see this paper, asking original Singaporeans to fold up.

This little island called Singapore will be around, but the original Singaporeans will not be visible. If this white paper is followed blindly.

Many don't realise that the real beneficiary of this policy is the ruling party. Assuming an increase of 1 million new citizens in the next 15 -20 years, these new citizens are likely to vote for the PAP which should more than make up for any shift of votes to opposition.

By now it shud be clear to intelligent folks like you guys, that the real objective of bringing in FT is to prevent this humongous housing bubble from collapsing. It is also to quickly refill the already empty coffers of the ponzi CPF scheme, whose money has been emptied by the govt (officially) to Temasek and GIC. Sometimes, the most complicated lies are told just to obfuscate the most obvious.

I think enough is enough. I will no longer vote for PAP. Neither will I allow my parents, grandparents, children, friends and relatives to vote PAP. I will target to get at least 95% of all those related to me or are my friends to vote for any opposition. Between a dog and MIW, I will rather vote the dog. It is painful to see how the leeders are damaging this country and selling out citizens and Singapore assets to foreigners.

We the people of Singapore,Pledge as One united people,Regardless of race, language or religionTo build a society FREE from PAP!

Let me try to get this straight.2 days after they lost Ponggol East, due in great part to the voters' negative reactions to what has been happening in the past few years (overcrowding and infrastructural problems due to immigration rate, high cost of living, housing etc) - their response is to tell the citizentry population will continue to rise by 1+ million!So this is Lim Swee Say's deaf frog analogy. I'm looking for job overseas, it's no longer my country.

The Istana grounds must be redeveloped into a mixed use development comprising at least 10000 residential units and many commercial units. PM, will you agree to this? It's definitely a wonderful initiative to demonstrate (with action and not talk only) you're on the side of Singaporeans.

I think you guys missed the bulls-I dea. It appears that the govt is working on " what to them is a workable city or ideal state of affair" when they decide on the population number.

You see folks, they could have settled for 5M if that's " workable". So the highfalutin men cracked their ingenious minds and concluded, at this stage( hopefully foresight not impaired) that 7 M is a sweet number for what they have in mind

What you should be questioning is not the number but their idea of an "ideal city" for an ISLAND.

1) high maintenance, high quality, high productivity and high cost city

On Monday, PM Lee apologised for the government's lack of 20/20 foresight and all the "unpredictable events" in the last decade. The next day, they release the grand population plan for 2030.

Perhaps by GE2021, we will not have a majority in parliament and hopefully put a stop to 6.9mil target.

Then again, I always wonder if these are their exit "strategies" to let the next government / opposition party pick up the mess. All these antagonistic policies will further alienate the increasing younger generation.

Can you still afford the COE now? Good, then when there are 7 million, imagine your riches when you liquidate your properties to emigrate and live like a king. Because you will know that your children, even with their overseas degrees, cannot afford 3 room HDB by then or your inevitable medical expenses.

Joke of having zero foresight>AhLong: Daddy, Daddy, I lost the BE. How ah?Daddy: Punish them lah.AhLong: How ah?Daddy: Import more aliens to screw them lah.

I think by the next GE, the elite party will not have the majority votes unless they do something really drastic. The last GE, they ended up with only 60% votes. I am sure more than 15% will swing over to alternative parties.

What have been planned for housing, transport, medical, jobs ……. Who’s to take care of these trash when they grow old, import more trash to look after them or my children have to do it?

What about ME? How is it that I feel PAP have forgotten about me and ever so eager to welcome trash to replace ME?I do not think the oppositions are great, they may not have enough talent to form the government. I’d voted for an opposition anyway, voting for a monkey is better than to vote for PAP. I hope Monkeys don’t lie, don’t betray and have hearts. Repent! Pray……for there are many like me whom do not want LHL to be our PM. You can rot in hell.

The Vicious Cycle was created 3 decades ago, but Sinkies were revelling happily going with the Flow.

Now, be it remorse, regret or repent, all to late. Only way to slow down the Damage and Impending Calamity is to change the Regime. No other way nor is there any escape from the eventuality. However, for those who can survive elsewhere, time to move. No point repairing cracked pot or retrieving spilt milk.

While it is alarming to many and lots of Sinkies crying over spilt milk, there are still many stoically claiming Singapore has had the Best and most able government. No matter the situation and the gloomy future, they insist Singapore's prosperity today is the work of the PAP only It deserves the credit. What a paradox!

Me has taxi driver sibling, relative and friends and NOT a single one does not praise the Government/PAP. All are die hard PAP Supporters, at least when discussions fall on local politics. Another die hard group are those in grassroot organizations. Talk to them and one will understand the thinkings of the 40%. Maybe,it may have dropped a bit, but hardly a dent. Therefore, the Rulers can still afford to play hard ball with the People.

Since they always get it wrong, their population aging profile can also be wrong. It is funny that they state "two in three working as professional, executies and technicians" - are they including taxi drivers, odd/ parttime jobs holders, delivery guys into this category? Are they trying to fool us again?

"they insist Singapore's prosperity today is the work of the PAP" - they do not understand singapore and singaporeans are two separate entities. while singapore progress, average singaporeans regress, the only one benefit is the rulers of singapore.

I can't help thinking that PAP's hidden agenda is similar to the Umno Govt giving out ICs to illegal Muslim immigrants in Sabah whose population jumped form a few hundred thousand to a few million in a matter of a few years ?

And that mad ex-PM Mahathir tried to equate it to the British govt giving out citizenships to a few million Chinese & Indians just be independence.

In our case isn't it correct to deduce that we also have a mad ex-PM here who must desperate enough to retain power by hook or by crook at the expense of the common folks who most likely form the majority supporters for the opposition voters ? Hence his warning to the voters to repent if they voted for the opposition ?

In a way one can also can't help thinking that PAP has now become like the traitors to both the people & the country, isn't it ?

Pro Alien Party ought to solve fertility issue donkey years ago with shock rewards instead of breadcrumb rewards. Is the same as SMRT offer discount of a few ¢ to entice early travel in morning before peak hours- it will fail miserably.

Now they want to flood the tiny island with 30% more. Many of these whites must be voted out before the country sinks further

I really don't understand the argument about young worker supporting retirees to justify importing worker. If the ft has parent he will support his foreign parent not a Singaporean. The government is not taxing to support social security, unless this plan is in the card that I do not know of.

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When we talk government we talk about the ministers. how many of them are there, a dozen? If you think half of the incumbent are making the right decisions for us now. Then how many quality ministers do we need in a replacement government of equivalent quality. So are we doomed if the opposition comes in as government? Do you see the losing candidate at PE as great Minister material? If this is so we are at the barrels bottom.

"While it is true that the Singaporean workforce is ageing, Singapore workforce today consists of both foreigners (40%) and Singaporeans(60%). These foreigners on work permits and employment passes are "refreshed" every few years provide a segment of the workforce is "forever young". So the combined profile of our entire workforce is not going to age substantially over time"

I think your analysis is a bit flawed. If the stats take into account a prjection level of attrition. This is the product of death and those that return to their home countries. Unless you can tell me that ALL new citizens return to their country of origin to retire?

When PAP tells Singaporeans that the increase in population to 6.9 million is to create more jobs, what PAP does not tell Singaporeans is that the more jobs created is for the 3.5 million of foreigners and permanent residents to be employed by 2030.

Besides creating more new jobs for foreigners and permanent residents, and as foreigners and permanent residents coming to Singapore need to have work in Singapore in the first place, PAP is willingly trying to sacrifice some of the unlucky Singaporeans jobs by making some of these Singaporeans become unemployed through sacking, firing, forced resignation, bully tactics in the workplace, etc. The lost of these Singaporeans jobs are then filled up by the foreigners and permanent residents.

When PAP told Singaporeans that MRT network size will be doubled during Punggol East by-election campaign, Singaporeans were tricked by the PAP that expanding the MRT network is for current 5.3 million population.Instead, the hard truth is PAP is expanding the MRT network to cater for the 3.5 million of foreigners, including permanent residents, by 2030.

When PAP told Singaporeans that many thousands of HDB flats and properties are to be built in the next few years during Punggol East by-election campaign, Singaporeans were tricked by the PAP that building more HDB flats and properties are for the current 5.3 million population.Instead, the hard truth is PAP is building more HDB flats and properties to cater for the 3.5 million of foreigners, including permanent residents, by 2030.

When the population reaches 6.9 million by 2030,

more Singaporeans will become unemployed because jobs are filled by foreigners and permanent residents,

more Singaporeans will be underemployed for those who are still employed because good jobs are filled by foreigners and permanent residents,

more Singaporeans salaries will be depressed for those who are still employed because of competition for limited number of jobs from 3.5 million of foreigners and permanent residents,

multi-million dollars of HDB flats and properties become the new normal, as a result, Singaporeans cannot afford to own a small place to live in and for those who are unlucky to be living in a flat or property, Singaporeans will have life time of high price mortgages to be paid off.

more Singaporeans have to live with the miserable facts that whenever they go, whether in MRT, buses, shopping malls, hospitals, schools, parks, etc, they are being drowned by tsunami of foreigners and permanent residents.

Singaporeans, is this the kind life, the kind of life of having 6.9 million population with 3.5 million of foreigners and permanent residents in Singapore, you want?

Singaporeans, do you aspire this is the kind of life for yourself, for your children and for your grand children by 2030 and beyond?

"...PAP is willingly trying to sacrifice some of the unlucky Singaporeans jobs by making some of these Singaporeans become unemployed through sacking, firing, forced resignation, bully tactics in the workplace, etc."Anon 31/1/13 10:26

Have to lah, in order for Singapore to survive.

Just like some soldiers have to die (sacrificed) in order to fight and win a war, tio bo?

Do you know that thousands of US soldiers died and even more injured fighting the war in Iraq and Afghanistan?

What worried me is still our children, the future generation. By 2030,I may not be around but my kids has to bear the consequences of this increase in population. For the rich man, they can easily send their child away if any things goes wrong here, but for the poor, they are stuck here. And I believe even for those new citizen, they may have escape route, if not they will not have come here in the first place.

What the White Paper doesn't address are the social issues faced when there are too many foreigners. Minister Khaw said that we will not be as dense as in HK. However, what I guess is that the Govt does not know how to calculate population densities since factually, we are ALREADY DENSER than HK! so, I can't understand what he is talking about or does he think Singaporeans can't do our Maths??

well, i first read the blog and thought the comments would be debating the opinion. but surprised to read that majority supporting Lucky Tan. why PAP is still winning election then?

The history gave us many proves that attracting talents form the world pool is a successful strategy. furthermore, the white paper proposing multiple solutions, one of them is keep attracting "foreigners". read the paper and do not rely on unaccurate synopsis!

Excellent piece Lucky. I can see the painstaking effort by PAP to proposed an extremely unpopulat policy. It is not going to win them votes. However, for the good of the country (I hope!), they came up with this. Now what the government really need to do is to demonstrate to us what are the other alternatives available, what are the considerations, the comparative analysis with the alternative proposals, and hence the final decision in coming up with this proposal.

People are not daft, you need to sell this well, and we all ask: What's in it for me? My kids are going to have to bear with a tougher environment. Couples without kids will straightway think twice about even having children. Fertility rates will fall even lower. Giving baby bonus packages are but just one of the many ways to tackle fertility issues. You need to change employment laws to make it family and child friendly, protect the women during pregnancies, protect the job security. MOM, stop sleeping on the job. PM Lee, generals as ministers are no good, they sit in their highly protected command post and look at maps and make decisions, with no regard for the foot soldier out there fighting his way out to defend his nation and his family. Seriously, PAP deserves to lose more seats come next GE. Maybe 60/40 majority will really wake them up!

The PAP assumes Singaporean desire strong economic growth and assumes economic growth correlates strongly with wealth and happiness, and is what S'poreans desire. Did they ask us? Why not ask S'poreans to vote for our own future if we would support this proposal? The last 5 years of population increase has brought us nothing but high asset inflation, houses and transport have become unaffordable, S'porean have to literally put all their savings to pay for the roof over their head, and for most of us, it's just for a basic HDB flat in a congested high rise suburbs far from central or prime district. S'poreans are relegated to second tier, priced out of prime real estate which are occupied by elite top earning Singaporean and wealthy foreigners. What has become of S'porean? Have we been competed and priced out of our own homeland? This white paper is a reflection of how out of touch the PAP is with S'poreans and the challenges we face today. Or they hear but they think they are the only ones who can think and the rest are stupid? PAP plan in their ivory tower. Only they are hankering after high economic growth at all cost. S'porean should have the right to decide whether we are for or against the white paper, why should such an important issue be left to PAP to decide?